North Carolina recently passed a bill called the NC Racial Justice act which is supposed to help eliminate racial prejudice from the justice system.
As Gov. Bev Perdue noted when she signed the bill into law on Tuesday: "The act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state's harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals - the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice."
That hasn't always been the case. Condemned N.C. prisoners have been removed from death row or lengthy prison terms after racial and other equity issues were raised. At least two black death row defendants have been exonerated after prosecutorial misconduct was revealed. A 2000 investigation by this newspaper found that blacks who killed whites were three times more likely to face the death penalty than murder victims generally.
There have been allegations of racial bias across the country. White jurors were quoted as commenting in deliberations in a Lancaster, S.C., case that "the n---- had to fry." In a Randolph County case, a white juror disparaged blacks in general and asserted outlandishly that black men rape white women to brag about it.
House Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, himself a lawyer, acknowledged that bias exists: "I've spent most of my life in courtrooms across North Carolina, and I have seen the subtle impact of race in our courtrooms."
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